U.S.A. Grand Prix Review

Firstly, though, a few comments about the track. To get the gripes out of the way, I found the infield section generally unexciting and plain unimaginative. American F1 tracks have generally tended to be that way ­ think Las Vegas or Phoenix. I think I'm in a majority when I suggest that whoever devised the double hairpins at turns 9 and 10 should be shot at dawn.

Having said that, for a television viewer I have seen no more riveting sight in F1 than to see the cars stream through the final banked turn and blast down the front straight. The great sense of history at this track is impossible to deny, even if the cars are heading in the 'wrong' direction. It may not be a difficult corner to get through, and in that sense it doesn't class as one of the great corners like Eau Rouge at Spa or the esses at Rouen, but as a television spectacle nothing matches it.

And of course, the other advantage that Indianapolis has is that it can accommodate a massive audience. Some 400,000 at least turn up to the Indy 500 each year, and even with a reduced capacity because of the track layout, this race produced a world record crowd of 250,000. Perhaps this figure won't be matched in the future once the novelty value has worn off (and the cut-price ticketing makes way for profit margins), but chances are this race will pull the biggest crowd each year. A massive contrast to the tiny numbers who showed up at Phoenix for the last US GP in 1991.

To the business of discussing the action on the track, though, and when the set-up juggling act came down to the crunch in qualifying, Michael Schumacher proved himself to be the best driver in the world, as if that needed doing, and ultimately the session was an anti-climax. Despite the interesting team tactics of McLaren asking Mika Hakkinen to give David Coulthard a tow down the straight, they were left trailing.

Sir Frank Williams has admitted that he is ever so slightly uneasy about letting Button go and taking a punt with Juan-Pablo Montoya next year, but his loss is Flavio Briatore's gain. Having said that, looking at Benetton's rather pathetically inconsistent performances this year, evidenced by an awful showing in qualifying here (and then also in the race), Button may also be wondering if he has made the right choice, not that he had many good ones available to him anyway.

Pedro Diniz has a superb run in qualifying to start 9th, well ahead of team-mate Mika Salo, and generally the Brazilian ended up having a fine weekend. The same could not be said for Jaguar, who embarrassed themselves in qualifying in front of Ford's top brass to record their worst showing speed-wise as a team thus far. Jean Alesi was another to have a difficult time in practice, constantly outpaced by Nick Heidfeld, which has become a far-too regular occurrence this year for those who still have faith in the Frenchman's ability.

To the race then, begun on wet tyres on a damp track. Slipping clutch or otherwise, Coulthard's oh-so-obvious jump-start was one of the more amusing things I've seen this year (and for it he earns our 'Reject of the Race' award). On the more cynical side, you could also say that it was a blatant piece of team tactics to get the Scot to block Schumacher to help Hakkinen as David tried to do early on. It made for nail-biting stuff, though ­ it would have been all too easy for any one of the top three to lose their cool and get into a wheel-banging session.

In the end, there may well have been a bit of wheel-banging when Schumacher aggressively barged his way past Coulthard. With so much at stake, it was a courageous move from the German around the outside at turn 1, which gave him the inside for turn 2. All credit to Coulthard for being quite fair, I thought. After the race, I found it a bit rich that Schumacher complained because David didn't let him by more easily once the Ferrari had drawn alongside. Their tussle was good, hard racing, which American crowds are used to in Champ-cars anyway. Schumacher's comments made F1 drivers look a bit like pansies.

On the other hand, Johnny Herbert's tactic of starting on slicks may have been an effective strategy. The time he lost while on the wrong tyre was not as great as the time needed to come in, and it catapulted him up into a potential points finish, which he could and should have maintained. Johnny was driving very impressively and assertively, in my opinion, and his move on Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari was a classy pass.

However, all year Jaguar have found ways of throwing away good finishing positions, and it was no different here, although for once it wasn't a mechanical problem. Herbert's mistake coming into the pits for his planned stop later on, when he missed his mark and broke his front wing, will not have endeared him to Champ-car team bosses, in a series where making up time in the pits is just as important as in F1, if not more so.

After Schumacher inevitably came in for grooved slicks, Hakkinen began eating into the German's lead, cutting it down to under 5 seconds. For a time this looked like Magny-Cours or Spa all over again, but in actual fact Schumacher was on a heavier fuel load, and I don't think Michael was all that concerned about his diminishing lead. Having said that, had the Finn caught up to and maybe even passed the Ferrari, we would have been in for a very interesting race to the finish.

Unfortunately we were robbed of this when Hakkinen's engine blew. McLaren were due for a DNF after such a spectacular run of reliability this season, but I'm sure Ron Dennis would have preferred it to happen a few races back, and not with only two GPs remaining. With Coulthard's jump-start having also come courtesy of a mechanical fault, this sudden change in fortune has put an unbelievably large dent in both Hakkinen's challenge for the driver's crown, and McLaren's chances of the constructor's championship.

The interest, then, was in the other podium and points positions. Trulli and Button would have had a chance had they not collided early, for the second time in three races. Naturally their versions of events differ, and I can't tell you anything since the American producer's coverage was decidedly devoid of replays. But I do get a feeling that Button has been getting a touch ambitious recently ­ Trulli was magnanimous after their Spa collision, but not so here. Then again, it is also the third time in a row that Trulli has been eliminated after being touched by another car, so naturally he's getting frustrated as well.

Ralf Schumacher was in contention before a sequence of off-track excursions and hydraulic problems put him out of the picture. Both the Arrows were up there, their incredible straight-line speed being thorns in the sides of many, including Coulthard who struggled to pass Pedro de la Rosa. But in the end neither of Tom Walkinshaw's cars made it home, Verstappen throwing away 4th place with another example of Jos brain-fade.

Frentzen eventually staved off the Canadian for the last podium spot, and a much-needed one for Jordan as well. Discounting Brazil, where Frentzen was only promoted to 3rd after Coulthard was disqualified, this was Jordan's first podium finish since Frentzen's win at Monza last year. No wonder Heinz-Harald seemed a tad nervous at the post-race interview and kept fiddling with his microphone!

I don't know if Villeneuve would have managed to pass Frentzen in the pits had he not spun, but he had the wood on the German in terms of lap times, but here's where the contrast in set-ups came into play. Frentzen's set-up allowed him to stay ahead on the front stretch, whereas Villeneuve's set-up helped him to catch up in the infield. Since the straight is where the best passing opportunities lie, you could say that logically Frentzen had the advantage, but Villeneuve certainly got close enough to challenge.

Two points are better than nothing, 5th for Coulthard was not what Ron Dennis was looking for, but in the end that was the best the Scot could do. 6th for Ricardo Zonta saw him move up to 3 points for the season, and finally out of reject status, although I felt that Diniz was unlucky not to score a point for his efforts throughout the weekend.

Ferrari leave Indy with good reason to celebrate. Schumacher has a crucial 8 point gap on Hakkinen that allows him to finish 2nd behind the Finn in both remaining races and still take the title by having more victories. Ferrari's 10-point lead in the constructor's title is by no means unassailable, but the prancing horse has certainly put its nose back in front as the championship battle moves into the home stretch.